


Trade Secrets

by Miri Cleo (miri_cleo)



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Canon, F/F, POV Pepper Potts, Rule 63
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:21:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24562294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miri_cleo/pseuds/Miri%20Cleo
Summary: The papers are calling it Iron Man...
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9
Collections: Marvel Femslash Exchange 2020





	Trade Secrets

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lets_call_me_Lily](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lets_call_me_Lily/gifts).



Pepper dabbed at Tony's black eye with a blend of concealer. She'd done this so many times over the past ten plus years that the blend itself really might as well have been a proprietary recipe locked away with other Stark Industries Trade secrets. She had, likewise, been doing it with Tony refusing to sit still for just as long. Today it was Tony trying to constantly look around the sponge to her picture on the front page of _The Chronicle_. 

"Iron Man? Iron… _Man_?" She tossed the paper down in disgust. "First of all, this is an awful picture. Someone absolutely has a better one out there somewhere. You should submit a better one. Still, it's obvious that the suit has actual _breasts_ on the breastplate." She pulled her head away from Pepper's ministrations. 

"Please be still."

"Maybe I should make them bigger...the breasts."

"Maybe you should focus on your cover story." Pepper put the compact and sponge away as Agent Phyllis Coulson of S.H.I.E.LD. handed Tony a set of blue notecards. She knew what was on them because she had helped Coulson refine the story so that it rang true--as true as it could, given what they'd come up with. But Pepper could also see from Tony's face that she wasn't internalizing any of it. 

"My yacht, really?"

"We have witnesses who will place you there all night," Agent Coulson said as she stepped back. 

"Why don't we say it was just Pepper and me...alone."

Pepper rolled her eyes. As if there hadn't been enough rumors throughout the years she'd been Tony's assistant.

"90 seconds until you're on," Coulson said. 

Before the agent could leave, Pepper thanked her for the help. Without it, she knew Jezebel Stane wouldn't have hesitated to detain her right there in the lobby of Stark Industries. Plus, she liked Phyllis and didn't mind when she said they'd be hearing more from her and her agency. And then Tony was there, cards in her perfect teeth as Pepper helped her into her blazer. 

Tony turned around and Pepper smoothed a few flyaway hairs, noting she needed to schedule a trim for about two weeks from then. She knew that look on Tony's face, that sparkle in her dark brown eyes. "You're not Iron Man."

"I'm not. You're right." she paused before grinning. "I'm Iron Woman."

"Tony…"

"You know, if I were Iron Woman, I'd have this girlfriend who knew my true identity. She'd be a wreck. She'd always be worried I was gonna die, yet so proud of the woman I'd become." She stared straight into Pepper's eyes. "And, of course, that would only make her more crazy about me. Tell me you never think of that night…"

"What night?" Pepper said, looking down as she focused all of her attention on straightening Tony's collar. 

"You know."

Of course she knew. How could she forget the night she'd almost kissed Antonia Stark, her boss and renown womanizer. "Oh," she said softly, meeting Tony's expectant gaze, "are you talking about the night we danced? And went up on the roof and you went down to get me a drink…" They were a little closer now, eyes locked. Pepper could have kissed her, just like that night. But then her voice hardened. "And left me there? Is that the night you're talking about?"

"Mmhmm," Tony said, knowing she'd fucked up but only just realizing it right in that very moment. 

Pepper smoothed her jacket one last time. "Thought so." She stepped back, still annoyed that Tony had left her and annoyed that despite it, she still wanted to kiss her. "Will that be all Miss Stark?"

"Yes, that will be all, Miss Potts."

Pepper smirked ever so slightly. Then she followed Tony out to the press conference where she was pretty sure Tony was going to announce herself as Iron Woman.


End file.
